27 May 2016

Portslade - Petersfield Laundry

It used to be a standing joke that Hove sent its dirty
washing to Portslade. This is not quite true because there were laundries at
Hove too but perhaps the laundries at Portslade employed more people and had
been longer established. Some of the Hove enterprises were tiny affairs
employing a handful of people whereas the Petersfield Laundry was a major
employer.

When Petersfield Laundry was established at Portslade in
1879 the Old Shoreham Road was still known by its old name – Upper Shoreham
Road. The business must have been a success because new works were opened there
in 1896.

Arthur Wellesey Green was the sole proprietor and manager.
He was a married man with two daughters, one called Ida Florence, who remained
unmarried, and Vera Olive. Mr Green was certainly not bashful about his name
being advertised because it was emblazoned on the roof of his establishment in
large letters next to the words ‘Petersfield Laundry’. On the façade of the
building between the two floors, slightly smaller letters proclaimed ‘Shirt
& Collars Cleaning Works (&) Laundry’.

(Brighton Season 1927-1928)An advert for starched collars & shirts

Shirts and collars had been a speciality of the firm since
at least 1896. In those days gentlemen wore shirts with detachable collars that
were washed separately and crisply starched, hence the need for collar studs to
keep the thing in place. These starched collars must have been very
uncomfortable in hot weather but a gentlemanly appearance was all-important.
Old habits die hard, and City gents were still wearing such items in the 1950s.

In the 1907 Hove Year Book there was an
advertisement claiming Petersfield Laundry was ‘the only Gold Medallist in the
County for Shirt Dressing’. It also advised the fashionable public that ‘Ball
Dresses, Blouses, Gents’ Clothes, and every description of Fancy Goods Cleaned
by the Dry Process, without unpicking’.

Petersfield Laundry offered a most up-to-date service too
– carpet beating by machinery. This must have been more efficient than
requiring a maid to drape such an item over the washing line and then whack it
with the aid of a special lightweight beater.

Petersfield Laundry was certainly a large employer of
female labour. In 1911 it was claimed there were 100 ironers – that is ladies
wielding the flat irons.

By the time of the Great War Petersfield Laundry did not
just collect Hove’s dirty washing because the firm also had receiving offices
at 1 Temple Street, Brighton and 80 London Road, Preston. In West Sussex there
were receiving offices at High Street, Shoreham and Shelley Road, Worthing.

(Brighton Season 1917-1918)An advertisement in 1917/1918 made sure prospective
customers knew all about Petersfield Laundry.

Winifred Pulling

She was born at 23 Shelldale Road and had six brothers and
one sister; she worked at Petersfield Laundry in the 1920s. She remembered the
huge washing machines and a vast drying shed where sheets were placed over
lines. Then it was a quick press under the long rollers before the sheets were
ready to fold and place in wicker baskets in which all deliveries were
despatched.

Winifred did not mind the hot, steamy work but she did
mind the grudging way overtime money was paid – you had to go and ask for it.
Her basic wage was 15/- a week.

John Tidy

Petersfield Laundry employed John Tidy as a maintenance
engineer in the 1920s. He was familiar with the place because he had worked
there before the Great War but left to serve with the Royal Horse Artillery.
During his service days the scream of exploding shells shattered his eardrums
and he returned home to Portslade totally deaf.

Nobody expected that he would be able to hold down a
regular job again but he was determined to get back his old job and he managed
it. He also married one of the laundry workers, Daisy Blaber, and after the
wedding the couple lived with his mother at 50 High Street, one of the old
flint cottages.

(Brighton Season 1923-1924)The Laundry & Cleaning Works in Upper Shoreham Road (Old Shoreham Road, Portslade). This 1923 drawing of the Works is based on the above 1907 photograph showing a horse-drawn delivery van